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Thursday, June 5, 2008

The weather has been very unsettled lately providing many opportunities for photographing unique cloud formations. I spend most early mornings and late evenings at this time of year at a favorite meadow, which I described in the previous post. I captured these beautiful cumulus clouds as I was leaving the area on last Friday Morning.

Canon 40D: 17-40mmF4L at 17mm 1/750 sec. f8 ISO 100

Late May and early June brings exciting action to the outdoors. The young of many species are born in this time frame. A family of woodchucks made the day on the morning of June 1. I had loaned "Salty" of Country Captures my 100-400mm lens since I seldom used it. He liked it so well that he purchased one recently, so I pressed mine back into service and I am finding that it works much better on the Canon 40D than it did on the 10D. I had found that this lens would not stand up to severe cropping on the 10D while the superb 500mmF4 and the 70-200mm 2.8 would. Salty used the lens on a Canon 30D and it was obvious that this lens performed much better on that camera. I am pleased with the results so far on the 40D. This lens is not as sharp as the 500mmf4, but one misses a lot of opportunities with that lens because of the difficulty of getting it in action unless one is on stand with it mounted on a tripod, waiting for wildlife to appear. The 100-400mm allows one to take the quick shot of a situation that is not going to last.

Canon 40D-100-400mmLF3.5-5.6 1/180sec. f5.6 ISO 400

I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the first newborn fawns. This is perhaps my favorite doe. She is totally acclimated to me and spends a lot of time feeding near my stand. She is six years old. She had a single fawns for two years, but had a set of twins last year-one a buck and the other a doe. Judging from the size of her distended abdomen I predict that she will have twins again this year, but I may or may not see them. It is common for deer to lose one or all of their fawns due to problems in the birthing process or predation. In this area the most common predators are coyotes and black bears. Does are more likely to lose the fawns at birth following a severe winter as the strain of survival can negatively impact the fawns development. Since it was a mild winter the chances for survival are excellent.

Canon 40D-100-400mmLF3.5-5.6 1/180sec. f5.6 ISO 400

In all likelihood she will give birth in the next few days. This morning I noticed that she did not follow her fawns from last year when they went to the mountain to lie up for the day, but slipped into the brush near a stream. This is a good indication that birthing time is quite near.

I hope to be able to post photographs of the newborn soon, but they do not always co-operate. I have seen fawns within a day of when they were born, but sometimes it is a week or more until they appear. (One can tell birth has occurred by observing the doe closely. If she looks like the doe above one day and appears the next with sunken flanks and a smaller abdomen, one knows the fawns have been born.)

Ordering Information

Information on "The Truth About Pennsylvania's Elk Herd" and ordering information for both this film and the new production, "Running Wild In Pennsylvania Elk Country"

Contains sample footage and ordering information.ClickHere to read more, or to order.

Wildlife Video Clips by W.Hill, on Vimeo: Click thumbnail to view large clip

Photo Book By Marci Geise

Marci Geise has published a book of photographs from Pennsylvania Elk Country, "Elk Scenic Drive". Click Here for purchasing information and to preview the book. In Elk County, "Elk Scenic Drive" is available exclusively at Benezett Store.

Guide To Photographing Elk In Pennsylvania

http://www.floralphoto.us/guidetophotographingelk Click here for important information about photographing the Pennsylvania elk herd. Written by Paul Staniszewski

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About Me

A graduate of Shippensburg University, I retired from the PA Game Commission in 2007 after many years as a Maintenance Worker, Maintenance Supervisor, and Deputy Wildlife Conservation Officer.
I have been interested in wildlife photography since 1974, and cinematography since 1990 and
have been published in Bugle Magazine, Pennsylvania Magazine, The PA Game Commission Calendar, and have released two documentary films, "The Truth About Pennsylvania's Elk Herd" and "Running Wild In Pennsylvania Elk Country". I also provided a significant portion of the footage for The Elk Country Visitor Center's theater presentation. Most of the wildlife footage other than elk was shot by me and I also shot a substantial portion of the elk footage including the tremendous bull fight at the end.
I use the Canon 5D MK III, 70D, and 7D DSLRS with a battery of L lenses for still photography, For video, I have a Canon XL-H1 fitted with a nanoFlash, but it is seldom used any more and I have mostly switched to Panasonic mirror-less cameras for this purpose. My current front line video acquisition tool is the GH4, but I have the GH3 and GH2 also and use them when the need arises.